Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-01-20
FRENZIED BY TERROR.
DETAILS OF THE FRIGHTFUL PANIC
AT SPlTALFIELDS, ENGLAND.

Seventeen Dead Bodies Picked Up Where
the Crush Was Greatest-Some of Them
Almost Nude Babies sunocated in
Their Mothers Arms-Cause of the
Observation-Disclosures Miscellany
LONDON, JAN 20-Twelve women, one
man, three boys, and one girl were picked ur
dead in the hall at Spitalsfieli Tuesday night
after the panic had subsidized. Besides this il
Is said that number of babies were suffo
Gated in their mothers arms during tht
crush. The hall presents scene Of great dis
order Most of the furniture is broken. and
blood stains, fragments of clothing, pieces OF
jewelry, etc, are in profusion upon the floor
The seventeen dead bodies taken from thu
building alter the panic were all found at tbs
foot of the stone stairway leading from the
gallery at which point the people from the
pit and those from the gallery met The
body of Eva Marks was found at the bottom
of the heap entirely stripped of clothing be,
low the waist, even her stockings and sloes
having been torn off in her terrible struggle
for life. Other evidences of the despera ton
OF the people in their mad efforts TO reach
the street were numerous.
Isaac Levy, a Jewish patria rch, the only
man killed, was seated near the door with
his wife When the alarm was given both
started for the street, but met the torrent OF
people tumbling down the stairway from the
gallery and were trampled to death in an in
slant. BY the side of their btli.3 was
found the corpse of a little boy Whose
knickerbockers, stockings aud shoes were torn
to shreds
Harris Goldberg, one of the patrons OF The
dramatic club says the stampede was
caused by the fright OF an actor on the stage
under these circumstances: In order to get
better view of the stage, some boys in the
CELERY climbed a gaspipe The strain upon
the pipe caused it to leak, and some one in
the audience shouted Turn of the meter.
A simultaneous cry of alarm was:.raised by
one of the actors, and this was quickly fol
lowed by the cry of FIRE from several parts
of the hall Instantly every one was
on foot and engaged in frantic eff
forts TO reach the door. Women
screamed and men howled and cursed. Gar
ments were torn from their wearers' backs
by those rearmost in the mad race, in their
anxiety to break through the crowd, and
men and women Wed with one another in the
desperation of their struggles to reach the
street Mr. Goldberg's wife was trampled I.
death, but his little son years Of age. -
capped unharmed, by climbing upon II mans
shoulder and running over the heads Of the
compact mass of people.
No blame is attached to the manager of
the hall, who, it is shown, had amply COM
Piled with all the requirements as to the num-
Der and dimensions Of the exits from the
building, The main passage leading to the
street is ten feet wide; at the point WHERE
the crush occurred the doors swing both ways.
There are three exits from the gallery to thu
street beside the main stairway, bat theS,
seem to have been ignored by the panic.
stricken crowd The loss of life was wholly
caused by the frantic efforts of the people in
the gallery to force their way down the
main staircase